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| hope college > admissions > international students |
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What Students Say Aparna Thomas (1993)  “On my first day here it was just incredible. Everyone you passed --- even if they didn’t know you --- smiled. Everyone smiles at you and says ‘Hi’to
you, and it just made me feel so comfortable here.” “I always dreamed about coming to the States for college,” says Aparna Thorn, who is from Miraj in Maharashtra, India. Now a sophomore at Hope, her dream has been realized. After spending a year in California as an exchange student during high school, Thomas knew she wanted to come to college in the United States. She heard about Hope through friends who were missionaries in India. “I was looking for a small, Christian college with a strong academic program and Hope was recommended to me by friends of the family who had graduated from Hope,” she says. Thomas admits that initially there were times she was homesick and lonely. “I miss my family, and I miss India,” she says. “But the experience I’m getting here at Hope makes it worth it.”She has found she enjoys many of the differences she has found here. For example, in India, she explains, education is more formal and directed; the students must focus on what they want to study much earlier than in the United States. “I’ve been taking classes that I really want to take. I’ve had a chance to take classes like piano, and last semester I took jazz dance, which I’ve loved all my life,”Thomas says. Thomas also enjoys the informal relationships that often develop between students and faculty. “The faculty here at Hope --- they’re just great,” she says. “I’ve become friends with my professors; they don’t just lecture and I’m not their student. I can go in and talk to them if I have a problem.” As an international student, Thomas has also enjoyed the friendliness of students. “On my first day here it was just incredible. Everyone you passed --- if they didn’t know you --- smiled. Everyone smiles at you and says ‘Hi’ to you, and it just made me feel so comfortable here,” Thomas says. Thomas appreciates, too, the opportunity Hope provides to make a broad circle of friends. “I’ve made some very close friends --- I have both American and international students as my friends,” she says. “I feel a close bond with the other international students here. But I also have really close American friends, like my roommate. She’s going home with me this summer. Of Hope and going to school in a foreign country, Thomas says, “Every day has something new to offer.” And she seems to be taking advantage of those opportunities. Thomas plans to graduate from Hope with a degree in business administration and then attend graduate school in this country before returning to India. Aparna Thomas ‘93 Miraj. Maharashtra, India |
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